NeNe Leakes says her oldest son, Bryson Bryant, is “doing OK” following his recent arrest for felony drug possession.
The “Real Housewives of Atlanta” alum speaks out about her son’s arrest for the first time during an upcoming appearance on Carlos King’s podcast, “Reality with the King,” which drops Tuesday.
“He needs rehabilitation,” Leakes tells the former Bravo producer. “He needs a lot of counseling.”
She continues, “Like many families out there, I have family members that are struggling with drugs and certain addictions. He has an addiction. He’s been struggling with it for years. He’s been in rehab for a couple of times and he still has come back out and relapsed.”
In fact, Leakes, 55, says her “hands are tied” when it comes to helping the 33-year-old.
“There’s not much that I can do,” she says. “For people who have had children or family members that have been on drugs, they know that they have to be ready.”
Although the Bravolebrity has “spent so much money on trying to get Bryson where he needs to be,” she realizes that nothing will change until he makes that decision for himself.
“Every time I’ve sent him off is because I said, ‘You are getting your ass up and we are sending you off,'” she explains. “But I learned through counseling myself that he has to say, ‘I’m ready to go,’ not me making him go. So until Bryson is ready to make a change, [there’s] nothing I can do.”
In fact, the struggle has been “happening for so many years” that Leakes is “kinda numb” to it all.
While the mother of two admits that growing up on reality TV “didn’t help” her son’s battle with addiction, she insists that it was not “the sole cause of it.”
“They’re having a light shined on them that they did not ask for,” Leakes, who is also mom to Brentt Leakes, says. “People are picking them apart because of the job that I chose to do. And so I feel for them in that way. But there’s just issues that he has.”
Although Leakes — who shares Bryson with ex Calvin Bryant — has a hard time relating to her son’s issues, she revealed that Lamar Odom has since offered to get Bryson into one of his Odom Wellness Treatment Centers.
While it’s unclear whether or not Bryson accepted Odom’s offer, the ex NBA star — who suffered a near-fatal overdose in 2015 — has tried to help numerous other celebrities battling drug addiction.
According to arrest records obtained by Pvnew, Bryson was arrested July 3 and hit with several charges, including possession of a scheduled II controlled substance, violation of probation, loitering and giving a false name, address or birthdate.
During his arrest, Bryson reportedly gave police his younger brother’s name as well as an old address from one of his mother’s previous homes.
Bryson, who has his fair share of run-ins with the law, remains behind bars at Gwinnett County Jail on a $6,100 bond.
